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9 author inspirations, including Passenger, 'New Girl,' icebergs

Special for USA TODAY
"Sideswiped" by Lia Riley.

Today's featured authors: Lia Riley, author of Sideswiped; Christine Bell, author of Reforming the Rock Star; and Nancy Corrigan, author of Mist Unveiled. They're sharing inspirations for their latest releases.

Lia Riley, author of Sideswiped

Three things that inspired Sideswiped:

• Music. While I require silence to edit to hear my words), music is vital to my drafting process. I listened to Passenger's All the Little Lights on repeat, more specifically the songs Patient Love and Wrong Direction. His wry, aching and hopeful lyrics always snapped me into the appropriate writing head space.

• Poetry. I kept Pablo Neruda's wonderful poem "XVII (I do not love you)" on my desktop while writing this book. Each line is an absolute gift and encapsulates the feelings Talia and Bran share with each other.

• Life. Like Talia, I moved to Australia for love. It was a hopeful and exciting leap of faith, but what I wasn't prepared for was the crash of reality: visa dramas, finding work and retaining a sense of self while in my first (and ultimately last, as I married my boyfriend) major relationship. Sideswiped isn't "my" story, but it does draw from similar struggles I faced.

Here's the blurb about Sideswiped:

Sometimes in order to find yourself, you need to venture off the map.

Talia and Bran broke all the rules and navigated dark and stormy emotional waters to be together and now that they finally seem to have found their way back to each other, the winds of change threaten to blow their love off course yet again...

Find out more at www.liariley.com.

"Reforming the Rock Star" by Christine Bell.

Christine Bell, author of Reforming the Rock Star

Three things that inspired my new release:

Matthew McConaughey and Jason Momoa (rawr!). My leading man, Lazlo Stone, is a combination of the two of them. I wanted him to have the irresistible charm and boyish sex appeal of Matthew McConaughey and the looks of Jason Momoa in the hopes of creating a character that readers (and I) could fall in love with.

New Girl. I LOVE the sitcom, and I love the lead female character, Jessica Day (played by Zooey Deschanel). Her hilariously endearing awkwardness mixed with her genuine sweetness makes her the kind of girl I wish I could be friends with. I tried to imagine a character like that but with a little tougher life growing up, and I wound up with my heroine, Syd.

My friends. I'm not the kind of person who gets close to other people easily and am kind of socially awkward myself, so the friends I have tend to be other introvert writer types and then the friends I've had since I was literally a baby. Growing up, there were five kids in our neighborhood — two boys and three girls — and we were inseparable. We called ourselves the Goonies. We spent half our time in the woods catching salamanders, making toy boats to race, and playing 7 billion variations on Tag, and the other half nearly getting killed by playing death-defying games we made up, like Smash Bikes (it's exactly what it sounds like) or Don't Break the Ice, which consisted of us walking on a (mostly) frozen lake in the winter time without cracking the ice. We all made it out alive, and they have been my best friends in the world for every one of my 40 years. We kept each other sane during the bad times, and celebrated during the good times. When I thought about the friendships in this book, especially the ones between Syd, Callie and her sister Lori, the Goonies were never far from my mind.

Here's the blurb about Reforming the Rock Star:

Sydney Metcalf is catering her bestie's wedding, but when best man and rock god Lazlo Stone wants her to cater the bachelor party too — with a cake shaped like boobs — she refuses to screw it up by being a prude. Syd isn't the type of girl Laz normally goes for, but he wants to make music with the Plain Jane. Too bad she's the bride's best friend. But after a kiss between them blazes out of control, he can't stop thinking about sweet little Syd. If only rock and roll mixed with love.

Find out more at christine-bell.com.

"Mist Unveiled" by Nancy Corrigan.

Nancy Corrigan, author of Mist Unveiled

My new paranormal romance, Mist Unveiled, is a mix of global warming, science, and Norse Mythology. All three inspired me to create this first installment to the Elemental Desire series, and they're all subjects I'm enthusiastic about. For me, tying them together in a romantic and passionate tale was so much fun!

The seeds of this book were planted earlier this year after I watched a documentary about global warming and the crisis stemming from the Arctic's rapidly melting icebergs. The next day, I happened to stumble over an article about archaeological and biological discoveries that had been found buried in ice. Being a scientist and author, my imagination went wild. I couldn't help wondering what might be uncovered if icebergs melted in a paranormal world where fantasy is reality. The possibilities are endless, but my love of mythology took over and eventually shaped the world of Mist Unveiled.

I don't want to give away too much, but I can say that I drew on two very important Norse myths to weave this tale. The Norsemen lived in a brutal world where their landscape and weather shaped their beliefs. As such, their mythology has some unique perspectives which surprisingly fit this story's world­ — one that's hovering on the brink of an environmental catastrophe. I'm looking forward to expanding this series and drawing on more Norse mythology, and I hope my readers enjoy this first look at the romantic and fantastical Elemental Desire series.

Here's the blurb for Mist Unveiled:

Cat has one love in her life—science. Facts rule her, not passion. At least it doesn't until an unknown deadly virus claims her sister's life. Cat's quest for answers takes her to Greenland and drops her into the arms of the one man who sways her devotion from logic to passion. Rune stirs her lusts, ignites her desires and fuels her carnal cravings, but he isn't simply a lover, nor is he human. He's a weapon, one that has the potential to save or destroy her.

Rune, a child of the mist, awakens into a world hovering on the verge of destruction. Rising temperatures have released his enemies from their frozen prison without his knowledge. He searches for them but finds Cat, a human with the power to save him and the world. He hungers for her—blood, body and soul. Every moment of shared passion convinces him of the truth—she's his greatest treasure, one he'll die to keep.

Find out more at www.nancycorriganauthor.com.

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